Thursday, February 12, 2004

Changing vowels

Every once in a while when I open my mouth and speak, I hear myself pronounce vowels in a manner that I do not recognize. "Ahs" come out like "awes" and "oohs" sounds like "ooes." Granted, writing a subtle difference in pronunciation is a little difficult. I think the easiest way to describe this slight shift in my vowels is almost as a drawl. It's too faint to really notice by anyone other than me, but I do notice it, and it bothers me.

I finished Touching the Void last night. I couldn't stop, even though I knew I had to get to bed. I read about fifty pages each Monday and Tuesday, then the remaining 100 pages last night. It is an amazing story. I mean, I knew he was going to make it (he wrote the book and I saw him on Letterman). But the story kept building. He was almost dead, he was delusional, rambling. He had been without food or water for four days. If he had delayed another few hours, stopped to sleep that last night, he would have made it back to an empty camp and died after all that struggling. But when he was rescued, it made me excited, happy, and relieved. I was filled with joy. A book has never brought about such emotion in me before. It was truly amazing for me. Maybe I should read one of those books with Fabio on the cover so I could experience a whole different kind of emotion. :p